I got the reed swim again, but only just, as the chap who arrived with me turned out to share my love of it. He fished from the other side of the reeds and although he was using the ubiquitous 2-rod carp set up, he was casting one to the margins and the other a short distance out, rather than the distance feeder approach favoured by many. He was, however, using boilies whereas I still stick to bread flake and luncheon meat.

Conditions proved to be appalling with a very strong southerly wind blowing right in my face. It was also overcast and therefore not too warm. I stuck it out but float fishing proved to be impracticable so I changed to a light leger in the margins.

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Bread flake produced nuisance bites so I changed to luncheon meat. A fish slipped the hook; it felt good but it wasn't to be. After this things died until 11.30 when I had a strong bite which turned out to be a barbel of about 1½lb.

About two hours later I had another barbel that was slightly smaller. I've only caught one barbel at Fields End before so two in succession was a surprise.

At 14.45 I caught my first carp; a mirror of 6lb (weighed). Almost exactly an hour later a mirror of 9lb was landed.

Things seemed to be looking up but in fact all went quiet after that, and the chap I mentioned earlier packed up (he had had 8, mainly during the morning). I tried bread flake again and at 17.30 I caught a 5lb common. I then lost another fish that slipped the hook as I tried to muscle it out of the reeds. Following this a mirror of about 2-3lb was taken on flake and then a crucian of about ¾lb. The wind had finally relented a bit but by this stage I was shattered having battled against it for nearly 12 hours, so I packed up.

The day was really a disappointment, not because of the low number of fish, but because of the difficult conditions. I like a pleasant relaxing day rather than a fight with the elements. At the end the fish tally wasn't too bad and on a more clement day I would have been more than satisfied, but as it was I half regretted going.